Zodiac Thriller

Although I quite dislike the whole Final Fantasy Tactics series I would be lying if I did not say I enjoyed that raid so much and that compared to every other twenty four man raids and even above Alexander although that one was a pretty low bar.

So the back story of the raid is pretty simple. There is a story about the Zodiac Braves (which the relics was about like the Nirvana) and some hidden secret about Ivalice and a bunch of people going to restore it or something. But what we really care about is the fights themselves and I got to admit there was quite a bit there that had me on the semi-edge. 

Mateus

I once wiped on this boss in 30 seconds

This boss was kinda interesting in my opinion but was quite an easy one to figure out. The fight follows the same patterns as the others in this raid do – your party always kill whatever appears in a certain spot and then go back to killing the main boss itself.

Other than that there was orbs that a giant mob will go around and collect. Should someone collect it before hand you will get a debuff but the mob will not spawn something an add with it and that is mostly it.

Dodge everything and stand in the bubbles to refresh your toxic filled air and and you are done. Just burn Mateus down and its easy. From what I see this boss mostly drops belts so eh if you are into those things.

Hashmal

Look left … they all just died. Again.

A very simple fight in practice that mostly resolved around being in the right position for your group (markers people!) and making sure you have enough DPS to be able to get the target..

You got your standard AoE damage that you have to heal, your standard tank buster which is a cleave that will kill any non-tank standing in front of the boss, your standard stack markers and dodging AoEs.

However the two interesting parts of the fight is the pillars and Extreme Edge. The pillars will be damaged a tiny bit after they spawn and they will spilt falling on people and its a one shot if they do. The Extreme Edge is simple as you just need to dodge to the side that has no fire appearing. This fight makes you use your cameras but beyond that its pretty simple … but the one you will likely wipe on a lot.

Rofocale

Surprisingly this one was easy.

With this boss we are carrying on the theme of making sure you stay with your party, damaging AoEs with no markers and attacks that seem different to what you are used to but I have to say I really loved this fight.

At the core the fight is simple. Now and then you will have an attack that is either a tank buster or something else (the main tank can tell by the debuffs). The boss also has an interesting figure of eight attack (if you wanted names you would be reading a guide) but it seems to be based on when the animation hits you and not the cast time – hopefully something we will see more in the future.

Then we got our standard rush attacks, activate some light orbs or something but lastly the adds. The boss will spin around in circles while three areas are sealed off. You kill them and then you run to the side as the next big damage is solely based on how close to the middle you are and yes you will still find people standing in the middle spamming barriers and wondering why they nearly died.

Ah well still a fun fight and one of the best designed fights in my opinion in Final Fantasy XIV.

Argath Thadalfus

Da da da da Daaaaaaaaa

Now we get to the end of this raid tier and while the boss isn’t the hardest of the raid it is quite fun to have worked out at least.

First this boss has your standard “I will do everything the other bosses has done” plus a few things you seen in other raids by now but the interesting part of the fight is what I will call “Good” and “Bad” faces simply because I do not know the names they use in-game.

During these moods there will be two attacks. The first is “Look Away” and “Scatter”. The idea is quite simple – you got to simply do what it says depending on the face. If it was a good face you can believe it so thus for turn away you really do turn away and for scatter you keep moving until the cast is over.

But when bad face happens you don’t believe it and do exactly opposite to what it says. So if you see turn away you keep facing the boss. If you see scatter you stop moving completely – not even a single auto attack.

Afterwards the only other things you never seen before is the controller confusion. A marker above your head will keep spinning clockwise and only stop when you move … at which point you will move in that direction. A simple way is to keep mashing any movement until you get the direction you want and hold it down

And that is it – that is the raid. While I am very disinterested in the lore the actual fights was lovely and although not hard enough yet for a twenty-four man raid in my opinion it is a very good start.